5 Questions with the Senior Associate Dean of MBA Programs at BU Questrom
In our latest installment of the MetroMBA “5 Questions” series, we speak with Barbara Bickart, the Senior Associate Dean of MBA Programs at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. Bickart talks about the qualities MBA candidates possess, unique opportunities for MBA students, and things to do in Boston.
1. Why should an MBA candidate be excited to apply to Questrom?
“I believe three main factors make our program unique.
First, Questrom has a strategic focus on three sectors that we have identified as drivers of growth in our economy—digital technology, health, and social impact. We have developed unique program offerings as well as vibrant communities around these three sectors, and many of our students participate in one of these programs.
Second, our program is designed so that students can obtain a deep base of functional knowledge and key skills, and start their elective courses in the first year. Our first year is divided into four, seven-week modules. In the first three modules, students take three classes and complete an integrated experiential project. For example, in Mod 3, students take Strategy, Information Systems, and Organizational Behavior while working on a client-based project that addresses strategic issues in one of our three sectors. Through this process, students learn to view and solve problems from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Students can start taking elective courses during Mod 4.
Barbara Bickart is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Senior Associate Dean for MBA Programs.
Finally, Boston is a great place for students studying business, with a vibrant culture around innovation and technology. Our project-based learning draws on the Boston eco-system, and many of our students end up working in Boston or the immediate area.”
2. What type of MBA candidate is the best fit for Questrom?
“Our students come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. In addition to being smart, intellectually curious, and engaged, the two traits that I would say best characterize our students are that (a) they care about community and the impact of their work on society and (b) they are agile and creative—they are flexible in how they think about and solve problems and look outside the box for solutions.”
3. How does Questrom stay on the cutting edge of MBA education? Is there a unique feature you can highlight?
“We are constantly evaluating and updating our curriculum, with a particular focus on adding more experiential learning opportunities in our courses and co-curricular experiences. Our faculty’s research often drives our elective courses. For example, one of our most popular elective courses is Platform Strategy. This course was developed by Professor Marshall Van Alstyne and is based on his book Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets are Transforming the Economy and How to Make the Work for You (2016, W.W. Norton and Co). In this course, student teams work on consulting projects for major platform-based companies. Past projects have been sponsored by Airbnb, Allstate, Capgemini, eBay, edX, Jawbone, Haier, Huawei, Mahindra, Pearson, PGA, PTC, Siemens, SAP, startups, and many others.”
4. What unique opportunities outside of the MBA curriculum make Questrom stand out?
“Our student community is active and engaged—there is always something going on here at Questrom. Students take advantage of the Boston ecosystem—attending networking events and conferences, for example, in health and life sciences. Questrom students are also involved Innovate@BU, which is a BU-wide initiative supporting student-led innovation and entrepreneurial activities. Students take advantage of the Build Lab IDG Capital Student Innovation Center, which is an on-campus co-working space for collaboration and new ventures. The Questrom School of Business Internship Fund provides financial support our students interested in exploring internships at not-for-profits. Finally, we offer a number to global learning opportunities, both in our curriculum and via student-run trips. Groups travel to Paris to study luxury marketing, South Africa to study social impact, Israel to study entrepreneurship, Vietnam to study manufacturing, and Silicon Valley to learn more about digital technology.”
“The views of Cambridge and Boston are amazing. I particularly love walking along the Charles during the Head of the Charles rowing races in October,” Bickart says.
5. What’s your favorite activity in Boston? Why?
“My favorite activity in Boston is to walk along paths on the Charles River. From my office, it takes just a few minutes to get to this path. The views of Cambridge and Boston are amazing. I particularly love walking along the Charles during the Head of the Charles rowing races in October. The races are exciting and fun to watch, and there is a lot of energy in the crowd.”
DMSB Keynote Speaker Encourages MBAs, New Startups, and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
Life is Like a Venture Investment, Biotech Entrepreneur Tells Business Graduates – D’Amore-McKim Blog
The Northeastern University D’Amore-McKim School of Business selected biotech entrepreneur Dr. Gerald Chan as the keynote speaker at the DMSB graduation ceremony last month.
Dr. Chan, whose private investment firm Morningside Group funds “life sciences startups that are working to discover new ways to treat disease,” implored the assembled crowd at Matthews Arena to “live a life that makes themselves and their loved ones proud” even if “life can be at times so scary and at other times so exhilarating.”
Dr. Chan shared a personal anecdote about his father’s refusal to accept a job at casino on ethical grounds: “Had he accepted that offer, our family would have become financially richer. But because he acted on his ethical principles against his own economic interest, my family can stand tall today.”
D’Amore-McKim School of Business graduates, during last month’s ceremony / Photo via damore-mckim.northeastern.edu
You can read the full article here for a complete overview of the ceremony.
Winning Paper Shows Network Effects Fuel Business Value and Upend Strategy – Questrom School of Business Blog
BU Questrom School of Business‘ Marshall Van Alstyne recently co-authored new research that finds that “platform businesses” that depend on high numbers of users like Microsoft, Apple, Uber, Google, and Amazon scale much faster by moving value creation from “internal production to external orchestration.”
In “Platform Ecosystems: How Developers Invert the Firm,” Van Alstyne and his co-authors conclude that this approach will reverberate through “every part of a business, from marketing to operations to human resources.”
“Instead of a firm doing all its own marketing, consumers can add value through viral marketing. Instead of AirBnB incurring operating costs of a hotel stay, ecosystem partners bear those costs.”
“Instead of hiring employees inside the firm, platforms rely on freelancers outside the firm. In each of these instances, the value-creating activity shifts from inside to outside the firm. This shift affects all of the traditional business functions. It also has profound implications for fair division of wealth in society.”
You can read the full article here and the complete paper here.
25 MIT Startups To Watch – MIT Sloan Newsroom
On Saturday, September 8, Bill Aulet, Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship told the crowd at the MIT Kresge Auditorium, “We’re not just going to be doing another dating app.”
“We’re going to be doing things like addressing inclusion in society, making a more informed citizen throughout the world, cybersecurity, mental health, urbanization, improving ed-tech, improving health care. These are significant problems that the brightest people in the world should be working on, and those people are MIT students.”
The ambitions Aulet spoke about were created from the 25 startups built within the MIT delta v accelerator, which you can check out here.
